Uncrowned Community Builders

Dr. John Ross Dixon, Sr., son of the late Daniel Ross Dixon and Anna Witherspoon Dixon, was born in Buffalo, New York, April 9, 1937. His experience of religious conversion spawned his journey of faith and activated in him a spiritually directed sense of surrender to Christ who modeled simplicity in service to others.

Dr. Dixon, educated in the Buffalo Public School System, received his B.A. from Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, and an Ed. M and Ed. D from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He began his tenure in the Buffalo Public Schools as an elementary school reading teacher. Dr. Dixon also served as a lead teacher for Wider Horizons. He was appointed assistant principal and later principal of Martin Luther King Jr. Multicultural Institute School #39. He retired in 1995 as Director of Reading-Language Arts Education.

He was indeed a minister of education, for he counseled students, parents and teachers through difficult personal periods. Engaged in daily prayer and meditation in his school office, he sought solutions to many of the problems he encountered as an advocate for children and the surrounding community while kneeling on his prayer rug.

Dr. Dixon spent his life as an educator preparing for his most rewarding role in the ministry. The will of God for his life was made known to him and he said, ââ?¬Å?Yes, Lord.ââ?¬ His retirement from the Buffalo Public School District afforded him the opportunity to pursue this calling to the study of theology. Rev. Dr. Dixon achieved a post-doctoral diploma in Black Church Studies from Colgate Rochester Divinity School; and the post doctoral Masters of Arts in Pastoral Ministry (M.A.P.M.) from Christ The King Seminary in East Aurora, New York.

Rev. Dr. Dixonââ?¬â?¢s desire to provide spiritual counseling to the infirm led him to serve as the Director of Pastoral Care at Sheehan Memorial Hospital and work in the pastoral care department at Hospice Buffalo and Palliative Care. Additionally, he served as an assistant professor of the Religion, Pastoral and Church Ministries Program at Houghton College at Buffalo. Ordained to a teaching ministry, he served as director of the Bereavement Ministry Project. Additionally, he conducted numerous lectures and workshops in churches and hospitals, and he counseled individuals and groups coping with death, dying, bereavement and loss. Rev. Dixon was associate minister with Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church and while in Memphis, Tennessee he worshipped at Brown Missionary Baptist Church.

For several years, Rev. Dr. Dixon wrote a weekly column, ââ?¬Å?Spiritually Speakingââ?¬ in the Buffalo Criterion. He held membership in his beloved Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Phi Delta Kappa, Black Educators Association and various local and national religious organizations.

Rev. Dr. Dixon died at Hospice Buffalo on Tuesday, December 2, 2003. Dr. Dixon was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather to his wife, Terrelyn Lovejoy Dixon; son, John Ross Dixon, Jr.; daughters, the late Anna Danese and Tââ?¬â?¢Ann Witherspoon and three granddaughters, Adrianna, Alexandria, and Jessica Dixon.